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2012-09-13 From Zombots With Love
Victor and Victoria. These two lovebirds have been in each other's face the entire day. It has been a good day for them. They met, they fell in love, and now they are having a great time making out in the Center of the Midtown. Yeah, that's right. They are practically kissing each other's faces off and there's not a gosh darn thing that anyone can do about it. It's a free country, isn't it? "Oh Victor... Oh Victor... Oh yes... Oh god ye-- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT!" Undeath From Above is the order of the day as Victoria spots the arrival of at least a dozen ZOMBOTS that come sailing in from above. There's more than likely a rooftop that they are flooding in from and the drop doesn't cause them any pain or anything, as they land one after another in some weird cinematic way that makes them look as though they are invaders from another planet or something. Snarling and growling with something akin to frustrated hunger, these Zombots are only still long enough for the Midtown Center crowd to see what's going on and scream like there's no tomorrow (because there might not be) and start running. Sadly, though, the Zombots are also equipped to handle such running and screaming, because they give chase, snatching up innocents and biting or throwing or just kicking them through windows. It's Chaos! It's Madness! It's... ZOMBARTA! Meanwhile... Tony Stark is in his penthouse. Taking a bubble bath. And listening to J.A.R.V.I.S. Radio's 80s Hits Station. Oblivious. "I always feel like... somebody's watching meeeeeee" o/` Anya clearly needs to stop buying things for her phone. Every time she goes to do so, something horrible happens. There was that hostage situation with Loki, there was... well, okay, meeting Laura was kind of great in hindsight. But now, all she wanted to do was get a phone cover without dried alien blood on it, and as she steps out of the store, she's greeted by... that. Whatever /that/ is. With a scowl, Anya turns and bolts through the fleeing masses to find herself a likely alleyway to dart into. Up onto the roof, and then it's just a matter of a quick change, and pow. Spider-Girl is on the scene, surveying the... whatevers... from a rooftop with a very perplexed expression. A backpack to stuff your civilian clothes in during an emergency. Never leave home without one. Pepper Potts is finishing up a normal day's paperwork in her office, like usual. She sends off one last email from her computer, then locks it and collects her purse, phone, and tablet computer to start for home. "JARVIS, how bad is the traffic out there?" Unlike SOME people, she has no qualms about riding the subway home if it'll be faster than dealing with the surface streets. Luckily, someone was in the crowd beforehand signing autographs and fresh-pressed singles! Celebrity Civilians are generally a lot more concerned with their own personal safety than they are with that of others. Granted, not many of them are (publicly) mutants; Dazzler /is./ And with her general status a plus in the public's eye has come a pretty massive confidence boost; when ... What the hell ARE THOSE?! ... show up, and people start running and screaming, Dazzler starts ramping up her storage batteries - all that sound is good for plenty of things! There are times when luck is one someone side. Sort of. Hawkeye... The female Hawkeye that is, isn't usually seen in this part of town. On the other hand, Kate Bishop is no stranger to Midtown. In fact right now, Kate is shopping. Or to be more exact, she was shopping with her sister, who insisted they use a car today. Sure it's not exactly the area that Sue (Kate's sister) normally would even think about shopping, but she felt like 'slumming it' today. In fact said sister is having things loaded into the car when all hell breaks loose. Yeah, as Zombots are leaping off of buildings, the trunk of the car is open so things can be put in by the driver. Hence the luck. Because while her sister is already in the car, Kate is around back, and can actually see the Zombots crashing to the ground not too far away. Thus she grabs a garment bag from the trunk, and a rather large, long box. "Bill." is said to the driver. "Tell my sister that something came up, and I had to go. Then get her as far as you can from here, as fast as you can." And yes, before the driver can even respond, Kate rushes off with that bag, and that box. And rather than spam you with everything else, just a short time later Hawkeye is on the scene, rushing towards those Zombots with her bow in hand, and an arrow at the ready. Do you need to know anything else? Phil Coulson likes to take his coffee and muffin ritual at a clean, modest little local cafe not too far off from the Center. He'd been cleared for light duty despite the sling on his left arm that he still wears over his usual suit. At the sounds of hullabaloo and shenanigans outside, he pauses, and gives the barrista an apologetic smile. "Can you hold that order for me? I've got to go check the noise out," he notes mildly. She nods, but he's already at the door, phone to his ear as he pushes onto the sidewalk and turns toward the disruption. "Coulson. We've got a situation. Midtown Center. Can't tell yet, but I'm betting on Barton's weird undead guys again. Yeah, I know-- light duty." he clicks the phone closed. As far as he's concerned, this *is* light duty. So there. "ZOMBIES!" a taxi driver hollers as he dashes into a Midtown TGI Fridays. A couple people lift their heads from their Southwestern eggrolls to give him weird looks; just about everyone else keeps right on drinking and talking. To the relief of the restaurant's bartender, the tiny man with the wild, black hair sitting at the end just slides off of his stool and stalks to the bathroom. "ZOMBIES! /ZOMBIES/!" the taxi driver continues screaming, meanwhile, running from table to table and even shaking a few patrons. "ZOM--why isn't--" He finally stops to scratch his head once he has a whole dining room worth of eyes on him. Spider-Girl being on the rooftops is a good thing. Or it would be, y'know, except for the fact that there's a couple of Zombots up there too. If she has that crazy Spider-Sense, she'll likely get to see them coming, because they are doing a double pounce Zombot dual tackle attack at this very moment! Undead faces looking and dripping with that nasty ooze that comes with these types of creatures of doom. Pepper gets a response from JARVIS, "Terrible. There's a situation in Midtown Center. It is suggested you stay here in the Tower where it is safe." Of course, it's not like Pepper is one to actually listen to JARVIS when it comes to these affairs... is she? Dazzler is going to be amp'd all the way up with the way all the Zombots make nothing but noise. Not to mention that everybody is screaming at the top of their lungs and falling over themselves (and each other!) to make sure they get away. Zombots are already headed in her direction too, swinging fists and feet at her, just in a method of Random Acts of Zombot Violence. Hawkeye the Second is on the scene! And she looks like a threat. Which is why she's getting turned on by a pair of Zombots the moment she starts heading in their direction. There's that zombietastic snarl that comes from both of them and they take off in a speedy run and a pair of acrobatic leaps, fingers bent in that CLAWFUL fashion! Rar! Coulson! Incoming Zombots ate Four and Seven O'Clock! Why are they coming at him? Because he's just another random civilian (as far as they know) that needs to be beaten and bitten. If only they had enough braaaaaiiiiiiins to know exactly who they were dealing with. They don't exactly attack, though. They are more just doing their ZOMBIE SCREAM of Intimidation! With a side of Bad Breath. Oh Friday's. What a place. It sure would be a shame if, oh, y'know, a Zombot came crashing through the doors and grabbed that cabbie up by the throat. With an incredible show of strength he lifts him up as if to say: ZomBOT. Not ZomBIE. ZomBOT! And then the cabbie gets thrown across the room. Okay, patrons, now you can run. JARVIS interrupts Stark's bath, "Sir. Zombots." "In my bathroom?!" Stark almost freaks the freak out. Sigh.mp3. "No. Midtown Center." "Got it. Prep my suit would ya'? I still have to air dry." "Very well, Sir." JARVIS bleeps back out. No spider-sense. The wizard kind of forgot that part. What Spider-Girl does have, however, is a healthy appreciation for horror movie tropes, and she whirls around just in time to see the two critters sailing through the air at her. What Spider-Girl does /not/ do is see the coming with enough time to move. She gets tackled right off the roof and lets out a loud, startled "OH MY GOD THIS IS SO GROOOOOOSS" on the way down. She throws her weight to the side to get at least /one/ of the zombots between herself and the ground before they hit pavement, at least, grunting with the impact and hurriedly reaching over her shoulder to grab the other and give it a hard pull to try and throw them off and, ideally, face-first into the nearest wall. Gerroff! "I /just/ got this dry-cleaned! You guys are in SO MUCH TROUBLE." Pepper Potts stops dead when JARVIS says there's something going on outside. Not good. Very not good. She turns and hurries toward the nearest windows, trying to look down at the streets in hopes of seeing what's going on. "JARVIS, where's Tony? Have you notified him yet?" She can't tell anything from this far up inside the tower, and will probably slap herself on the forehead later for not stopping to think twice about what she's preparing to do. She runs back to her office and kicks off her heels, reaching for the black Reeboks she keeps under her desk for those days when four inch pumps are more pain than they're worth. Ugly AND attacking? Two strikes already, and these things have any kind of demon breath or projectile acidic fluids, that's it; Dazzler will be DONE. Fists and feet she can handle - throwing off a quick repulsor-style photon blast to buy her enough time to get some space -- aaaannd figure out how to use light and lasers to null the threat of Robot Zombie Ninja-things. Greeeaaat. Well, as those Zombots leap at Hawkeye, she probably doesn't have much time to react. Does she? Well, as they come flying at her, that arrow is fired off. And while it is a regular arrow instead of her trick ones, Kate at least tries to make the shot count, by aiming for the zombots eye. Unfortunately, before she really has a chance to do more than pull out a second arrow, the second zombot (and maybe the first as well depending on what that arrow does, if anything), knocking her back, and down onto the ground. And yet as it (or they) press their assault, the female archer tries to stab the second Zombot with that arrow she ahs in hand. And unlike that first arrow, this one is a trick arrow. Or to me more exact, a 'torch arrow' that is meant to be shot into things before it starts to 'heat up' and possibly melt thing. In other words, it's not an arrow that Kate would normally consider using on a living person. Yep. Zombots. Coulson's afternoon is complete. Fortunately, being the intelligent and resourceful agent his dossier claims, he started packing toys from the S.H.I.E.L.D. armory specifically for these kinds of eventualities when it became clear the Zombot attacks were going to escalate. Phil finishes tucking his phone away, and his hand comes out of his jacket... with a slender silver cylinder (say that ten times fast) grasped in it. His thumb hooks into the ring and pulls the pin, and Coulson gives the cryogenic grenade a practiced roll along the sidewalk, grabbing a shrieking teenager out of the way. He points her 120 degrees to her right, and gently suggests, "That way would be better." A costume composed of state of the art unstable molecules and Wolverine still has to duck into a TGIFriday's bathroom to strip off the normal clothes he's wearing over it; the indignity offends the hirsute mutant almost as much as whatever the patron who used this stall before him was up to. Soon enough, his clothes have been stuffed into the trash can - he might come back for them later, he might not. He'll play it by ear; for now, he worries about keeping his head down as he shoves the bathroom door open to head outside. There are /always/ a couple of assholes with camera phones in places like this, and the X-Men's clandestine nature means that it's of the utmost importance that he slip out unseen-- Oh. One of them's in /here/, now; he holds the door open for a moment just to stare at the thing, then detaches his 'X' belt buckle, flicks it into the trash, and sprints from the bathroom and across the dining area to have a word with the zombot. That word is, of course, '*SNIKT!*'; he means to stop his run with his claws buried in the thing's abdomen. He'll figure it out from there, if need be. Action Hero Physics are on the side of the Spider-Girl. As she goes down, one Zombot gets crunched between her and the ground, but he's still moving. Well, its a bit of a slowed movement but he's still not down for the count. That's for sure. Before he can really do much else, though, his partner in grime gets hurled off to a brick wall where his face kind of splatters messily and he slides down... but is already stumbling its way back to its feet in that zombie way. "He's suiting up as we speak, Ms. Potts." JARVIS is keeping an eye on Pepper this entire time. "If you insist on going out there, I'm uploading what I have about the situation and the threat to your tablet." JARVIS doesn't have to say 'Be Careful', does he? Growling. Snarling. REPULSOR LIGHT TO THE FACE! The photon blast knocks the Ninja Zombots off their feet and back a few feet, right into another set that were about to get their Pile On Attacking Formation going. Dazzler has some time. Arrow To The Eye! That Zombot is paused for a second as he can't really see. But that doesn't do anything but slow him down. He continues on and works with his other Zombot Partner to press their advantage against the second of Hawkeyes... that is until his friend starts to smell even worse than before. And it would seem that he is melting from the inside. With a confused headtilt, the arrow-eyed zombot just knocks his previous partner off to the side and reaches both of his evil zombie hands for Kate's throat. ZOMBOT CHOKE! Both Zombots actually stop their intimidation screams to look at each other when Coulson pretty much pays them no mind. It's really an ego burn. But that's okay. Because within the next half a moment, there's an cryogenic grenade tink-tink-tink... right in their direction. The iceplosion™ has those Zombots frozen solid and in place. And it kind of looks like they are doing the Deadman's Macarena. A Zombot Named Friday doesn't stand a chance against the claws of doom. In fact, they sink into the zombot flesh with ease... but it doesn't budge other than the falling from the weight of the Wolverine colliding with its body! It smashes through a table, sending salad and french fries everywhere! That thing isn't going anywhere so long as Wolverine is on top of it. "JARVIS? Patch me through to SHIELD." The illustrious Iron Man is finally on sight, swirling in from above and making with the epic once around before hovering above the chaotic madness. "Uh, not sure if you guys know this or not but those robot zombie things are destroying the city. I'm gonna' stop them, but I'm not cleaning up after them. Over. Ten Four. Or something." With that said, here comes the Iron Man! Repulsor Blasts are sent towards random Zombots here and there to knock them away from civilians or even some of the heroes fighting them. JARVIS needs a second to scan these things anyway. Zombies aren't people anymore, right? Spider-Girl isn't gonna need to feel bad or get therapy or anything after this? Even then, she's trying to disable -- at least, for the moment, she is. When she realizes neither of her drooly friends seem to have been slowed down too much by the drop-or-fling, she scowls and hurriedly has her own word with them: thwip. "Stay," Spider-Girl says harshly as she tries to web the two in place, *THWIP*ing at their arms, their legs -- you know, things they couldn't get too far without. "Bad. /Bad/." Spider-Girl hauls herself back to her feet, pausing only long enough to give the zombot she landed on a quick kick to the head before she takes a slightly better look around. Civilians fleeing, good, they're moving AWAY from the horror movie. Heroes on the scene besides her, excellent. And... ...a guy with his arm in a sling? Aw, hell naw. Spider-Girl starts bounding Coulson's way, and only once she's a bit closer does she realize she recognizes him. Oh. He, uh. Probably doesn't need help, huh. Oh well, she's commited. Team-up time. Hard-light worked, so hard light is the new plan; a quick look is all Dazzler gets to try and get a feel for whichever ones are closer and therefore the most dangerous. Whee. "Well girl, you stuck around to play hero," she tells herself. "Nothing to do but GO FOR IT!" Plenty of juice means plenty of power, and the nearest batch of zombies gets a wide-angle solid photon beam with one hand, and the next closest gets one with the other. A third group that starts to get ideas gets the same FROM HER EYES, BITCHES. And as that Zombot reaches for her throat, Hawkeye does what she can to get clear. But it's a close thing. Painfully so as her scarf is caught and more than likely pulled on. But there isn't really even a moment for Kate to think about that. Not as she grabs another trick arrow from her quiver, and tries to jab it in the zombots other eye, before in turn she tries to kick it as hard as she can to get away But what was that trick arrow? Another 'torch arrow'? No. This one is almost explosive in that a second or two after making contact, it explodes with a hard, quick dry epoxy. Hopefully Kate will be clear of these two now, at least for the moment? Coulson gives Spider-Girl a friendly, if distracted nod when she arrives, in the middle of making sure some more civilians evacuate in the right direction. "Spider-Girl. Good to see you again. Have you dealt with these before?" He asks, before fetching and priming another icy grenade, lobbing this one into a pack of rampaging cyborg ninja zombie things. Yup, just another day on the job. Fighting Zombots with a gunshot wound. This stuff isn't in the brochures. Pepper Potts hurries back out of her office and reads what JARVIS sent to her tablet computer while riding the elevator down to the lobby. Very not good was FAR too mild for this. She practically sprints out of the elevator, heading for the security desk. "Lou! I need every person on duty in the building back here, immediately. We need to get as many people as possible inside this building and away from danger." She sidesteps past the security guard to snatch up one of the steel-shell suitcases kept back there for those occasions when sensitive documents or items have to be transported by hand and then takes a quick glance to see if there's anything like a cricket bat handy as well. Though, even as she does so, she can't help but wonder if Shaun of the Dead is the best choice to be referencing when selecting items to defend herself. The Zombot doesn't quite go down the way Wolverine had anticipated, and now there's artichoke dip dripping down his back. After wrestling with the thing for a moment to free his claws from its belly, he glances up at the circle of shocked, frightened onlookers, grunts, "Sorry, folks: floor show," then narrows his eyes on the undead jerk beneath him; the low lighting bounces off of his other three claws once they've popped out of their housings. When finally hauls himself to his feet a few seconds later, there's a leg here, a leg there, an arm dangling from the rafters, and another arm grasping up at him from the torso still doggedly writhing around on the ground. Rather than waste any more time with the stubborn thing, Wolverine elects to brush salad from himself and hit the streets. "Stay away from its hand and mouth," he flatly instructs the patrons as he steps outside. "I was never here." Granted, while the Zombots may be strong... they are also prone to getting all webbed up and have nowhere to go. They can be pinned down and webbed up and that happens very easily. Which is kind of a good thing because it keeps them from wandering off. So now there's Webbed Zombots and Frozen Zombots. That's good, right? They're not attacking anyone, so that has to be somewhat good, right? For some strange reason Evacuate The Dance Floor is playing behind Dazzler as she lights these Zombots up. As her hard light slams into the zombotties, they sail this way and that way, crunching into each other and smacking into wall. A couple of them actually LOSE THEIR HEADS from powerful light show coming from the Dazzler's eyes. Zombot Pile Up. Trick Arrows seem to do the trick against Zombots. With Melty Zombot stumbling back towards Kate and Arrow Eye and the kick from Kate that sends the Dual Arrowed Eye Zombot backwards... then the explosion happens and those two Zombots find themselves apoxy'd to the ground. Elmer'd. Coulson's Cryo Grenades get some more of these things all nice and Frozen. While those civilians make their screaming escape to freedom. Friday Zombot is in pieces. And with Logan's exit, there's only one thing left for the patrons still stuck inside to do. Hurl. Granted, they better do it fast. Because there's a blinking light that's blinking faster and faster now that the Zombot is losing that thing called (un)life. That's not good. And one of the patrons actually notices this and starts the evacuation process. So far, the Zombots have been able to be contained to Midtown Center. Which is good. The heroes won't have to go hunt them down or anything. "Attention Earth's Rag Tag Heroes." Iron Man's robotic voice intones as he swooshes in. "Keep these things contained. Don't let them spread. And whatever you do, don't puncture their hearts..." Upon on Iron Man's HUD he's seeing quite a few red dots. "Unless you hate New York. In that case, by all means, cause the IEDs to go off." That should be some helpful information. Not that the Friday's crowd isn't already privy to this. "Sir. There's a wireless signal. I can't trace it but it seems to be the source of our problem." JARVIS is all about the passing out of information. On Pepper's tablet: HOW TO DISARM AN IED is popped up on the screen. Which should come in handy with what she has in that briefcase. "Jam it, JARVIS." Spider-Girl skids to a halt next to Coulson, saluting jauntily before she turns to peer after the -- "Is that a grenade?" -- that he rolls into a crowd of zombies. Oh. Okay, cool, no flameyboom, that's good. "Can't say that I have, but that looked effective! May I?" She makes grabby hands at him. Gimme a grenade, Phil. You can trust me! See? See what you get when you ask nicely? You get handed /cryo grenades/. Always be polite, kids! "I have always wanted to do this," Spider-Girl confesses, before she turns and goes sprinting full-bore at the biggest group of zombies she can find. She actually vaults over a few singletons on her way there, twisting acrobatically through the air on her way past -- and then she fires off a webline to get her swing on, the two grenades held in one hand. At least, until Spider-Girl is pulling the pin with her teeth and hucking them down into a mess of zombies. (What's a group of zombies called, anyway? A shuffle? We'll go with a shuffle.) "Clever ice pun!" Spider-Girl bellows down at the shuffle, for lack of an /actual/ clever ice pun, and she swings on by as there's an explosion of ice and undead limbs behind her. Cool spiders don't look at explosions. Pepper Potts pauses to look at her tablet again as the building security guards scramble to start herding people inside, and her eyes go wide. "A... what?" She hastily puts her bluetooth in her ear and dials Tony. Not waiting for the usual banter (which is unusual for her), the moment she hears that the call is connected she says hastily, "I've got Lou and every guard on duty trying to get people inside, and JARVIS wants me to learn to disarm an IED in two minutes?" But, even as she's complaining about it, Pepper hurries over to a clear spot on the floor near the front doors but out of the way of foot traffic to throw open the steel briefcase and study its contents and the information on her tablet. IED disarming crash course, here we go. Spider-Girl is quipping loud enough for Dazzler to give a SNRRK; that was actually funny! And since she seems to be doing an ace job of keeping the zombots the HELL AWAY from her and there ain't nothing if not all kinds of noise, she decides to try to get ... creative. Let's just see if this works... "Industrial Light and Magic, /EAT YOUR HEART OUT/," Dazzler says out loud as a crackling semi-technological looking shield seems to form in place in a dome over her -- it's got a grid and random looking sigil-number things, though it's totally multicolored and girly like a high-tech U.I. designed by Barbie. As Dazzler touches multiple spots on the shield, little reticles of blooming rainbow awesome form at her fingertips - before lancing out with solid light spikes at the Zombots she's pointing at. It'll eat up the sound energy as fast as Dazzler can absorb it, but what the hell; go for the gusto, right? "First rule of being an archer... Keep them at a distance..." Kate murmurs to herself as she finally gets a chance to ya know, use her bow again rather than just stabbing Zombots with arrows. Especially since the last two she just had to deal with are now glued to the ground. All though as Hawkeye hears that announcement from Iron Man, she does frown slightly. But what can she do? Well to be honest, she can start firing the arrows she has, regular arrows, at the Zombots she has a clear line of fire on (or at least clear enough that she isn't too worried about hitting others if they get in the way). And while her aim isn't Green Arrow level, she still tries to do her best. She aims for eyes, elbows, knees, and other joints or other obvious 'human' weak spots. Each shot done as fast as she can, usually with only one or two per Zombot before she switches targets. Maybe after a couple of Zombots she might shift back to an earlier target in an effort to do some more damage to the Zombots. And yet, even as she tries to fire all those arrows, she doesn't use any more trick arrows. Even without using 'trick arrows' though, the 'normal arrows' are hopefully at least doing some good, if only because of where the female archer is trying to aim. And yes, even Kate can't help but grin slightly at Spider-Girls 'quip' as she's firing those arrows. Coulson's happy to hand over two of the remaining four cryo grenades to such a polite young crimefighting lady. As he tosses one of his remaining pair, his voice is one of casual reflection at the girl's punnery failing her in a time of need. "You mean like... 'Take a chill pill'? Or 'you're looking hot under the collar, I guess we'd better put you on ice'?" He shrugs, picks a pack of Zombots to receive the last of his grenades, and then takes a moment to take stock of the situation, still deadpanning in mild amusement. "Or maybe a simple classic, like 'Hey, chill out'." Logan barely makes it outside before-- BOOM! --he and the Friday's patrons get a nasty surprise. "--the hell was...?" He starts to peer over his shoulder, then freezes; he /knows/ what it was. He could /smell/ it even, buried beneath the rot and the mozzarella sticks and spray tan and all, he just didn't pay it the kind of attention he should've - explosives, somewhere in the body. He glances up to Iron Man, who swoops in to give the confirmation, then contemplates his claws with a frown. "Ain't makin' any promises," he calls up to the Iron Avenger as he runs into the fray. Without a word further, he begins hacking and slashing at--parking meters, flagpoles, ourdoor dining sets, anything he can hack long, sharp bits of wood or metal from. He caught a glimpse of a girl with a bow filling them with arrows, and that - given the alternative - doesn't seem to be the worst option; each makeshift javelin is immediately hurled through an undead arm, shoulder, leg, anything to put them down and keep them from menacing the civilians while someone better prepared to shut them down without--well, killing people can gets around to dealing with them. Through the combined efforts of Webbing! Cryogenic Grenades! Light Spikes! Arrows! Claws! And the Kitchen Sink (JARVIS)!, those Zombots all seem to come to a halt. Or, well, at least the explosives in their chests do. On the HUD within the Iron Man suit, all those red dots blink away as they are no longer active threats. And with the Zombots all pinned and locked into place in various manners, there's time for some final pleasantries to happen and such. Which has the Iron Man armor landing near Son of Coul. And in a second the faceplate slides up and Stark offers a big annoyed smile. "I was taking a bath, y'know. With bubbles. It was almost relaxing." He just has to get his complaining on. "Anyway, all of these things can go boom." He nods off in the direction of the Friday's Fiasco Aftermath. "Think you can get your Fantasy Bomb Squad in here to help disable these things before somebody gets hurt?" Yeah, because this entire thing is totally SHIELD's fault. Not his. It's never Tony Stark's fault. Like ever. "You're a gem, Agent. A gem!" And Stark isn't even waiting for a reply, before he's lowering the faceplate back down and blasting off to get to Pepper and rescue her from the task of disabling bombs. It isn't long before Coulson has two costumed dorks flanking him, because Spider-Girl lands next to him in short order and offers him the pins back. It's only polite. "Thanks for the toys. And the puns, you've got a future in this biz," she adds cheerfully, then pauses and waggles her fingers up at Iron Man. Yo, sup. "Ain't that always the way? Can't get a moment's peace," she says, disapproval clear in her tone. As Iron Man zooms off for further Thrillig Heroics, she turns to peer out over the Center, arms folded over her chest, and scowls. "As soon as I clean one mess of jerks off my docket, a new one shows up. What were these guys, anyway?" Pepper Potts reads the information on her tablet, then takes a deep breath before closing the steel briefcase again and scooting out the door past the various panicky people being shooed inside. "Lou, with me." She hurries toward the closest... EW. Zombie thing that's pinned to the ground with a parking meter like a bug in a shadow box. "Oh, this is disgusting." She then proceeds to try and disarm the bomb set in the zombot's chest using the instructions on her tablet and the random items in the steel case. Powering down; oohh yeah. That was a LOT more 'creative' than Dazzler was particularly prepared to get, and it shows - gal is visibly pooped. Turning to address Coulson while doubled over so as to catch her breath, she raises a finger. "I would also like to know the answer to that," Dazzler asks while her eyes track Tony briefly across the plaza. Too pooped to complain out loud. As the last Zombot is dealt with, Kate is reaching for another arrow. And yet as she watches it fall, she doesn't even bother to actually take the arrow. Instead, she just smiles as she glances around, taking in the scene. Sure the chaos (especially at the TGIFridays) isn't anything to smile about. But the fact that this is over...? Yeah, that's something worth a smile. Or at least that is until she actually hears the girl who made that quip earlier ask a loaded question, as well as Dazzler. But instead of being polite, Kate chimes in as she moves closer, if only to spare Coulson some of the effort. "They're some sort of Zombie Robot thing, and they're being sent, if not created by a guy calling himself 'Yellow Claw'. They attacked The Strutter Live Finale in Times Square a few days ago, and he did a full rant on the giant screen there. I think he put it on the web as well, or at least television." And yes, Coulson is given a look as that's said by the female archer, but what that look means is anyones guess. Coulson has long since learned that the absolute best way to deal with Tony Stark is to ignore him as much as possible until he says something helpful. Some days it involves a LOT of ignoring. Today, Coulson just reaches into his jacket for his phone like he was going to anyway. "Coulson. Need a cleanup and retreival team down here ASAP. Threat's been neutralized for the time being." A pause, and his eyes go skyward for a moment. "Good." He clicks the phone off and looks towards Spider-Girl, gesturing at Kate's summary. "They're... cyborg undead... ell, not ninja, exactly. Chinese. You get the idea. They have a tendency to burst and throw napalm all over if you render them inoperable. Freezing works best, EMPs aren't bad either," he explains. Clearly he knows plenty about them, and clearance is for when you're not talking to heroes that Need to Know so they can minimize the dangers posed. "How many more'a these things are out there, then, eh?" Wolverine gruffly wonders after quietly settling in behind Kate. There's a parking meter over his shoulder, and a couple of impaled Zombots hanging from the end of it; after dumping it to the ground, he jerks a thumb towards them. "Freeze claws are in the shop," he adds, glancing between Spider-Girl and Coulson. Iron Man slams down onto the street next to the Pepper and is ready with the lifting up the faceplate once again. "I probably shouldn't make any remarks about you being the bomb right now, should I?" is all he has to say as he takes to looking over Pepper's shoulder to make sure she's doing that right. "Uh. Other wire." Yeah, he can't have her getting explodinated. That would suck horribly. And he doesn't have a good replacement. Spider-Girl looks between Kate, Coulson, and Wolverine -- who gets a second look, because dude. "...corpsesicle," she says under her breath, eyeing the zombies-on-a-pike thing he's got going on, before she shakes herself. RIGHT. SHE'S WORKING. "Chinese zombies can be ninjas too, don't be hatin'," Spider-Girl notes, patting Coulson on his good shoulder as she turns to regard Kate (and Ali, hi Ali!). "I'm glad things didn't get all... napalmy. That would have sucked, for me. So where's this Yellow Claw guy?" she asks, pounding one fist into her other palm. "He interrupted prime time TV. Clearly has to be stopped." Pepper Potts gasps in surprise at Tony's rather abrupt and slightly LOUD arrival, pulling her hands away from the zombie thing abruptly to keep from cutting something she didn't mean to in her surprise. "Oh god, Tony. Warn me next time." She looks at the wires again, frowning slightly at the wire she'd about to cut and the one that Tony indicated. "Oh." "I was watching 'We All Bet You Can't Dance'," Dazzler says with a shrug when the whole TV thing is explained. "But uhm... yeah. Very lucky I didn't accidentally nuke the whole plaza. That would have been... bad." Spider-Girl gets a little finger-wave -- Dazzler isn't even remotely familiar with anyone else in immediate conversational facility. And to answer the 'Who is Yellow Claw' question, Hawkeye leaves it up to Coulson. After all, that's something that she's been wondering herself. All though as she notices Spider-Girls reaction to something behind her, the female archer does turn, and then takes a few reflexive steps backwards as she notices just what Wolverine is carrying, and how he's carrying them. "Woah." "We don't entirely know. We're working on it," Coulson replies. "I can't promise you'll all be informed when we do, but something tells me this is all going to end in something large and public you couldn't miss." "Mmm," Logan grunts in reply as he gingerly circles his arm around. Hauling all those zombies around may have been convenient, but those sons of bitches are /heavy/; too much dead weight, he supposes. "Maybe if we're lucky, someone'll even be there in time to /stop/ it." Oblivious to the NEED TO KNOW conversation that's happening over yonder, Iron Man is focused on making sure that Pepper doesn't blow herself up. "SHIELD's coming to handle these things. We can go, Potts." This is more of a macho thing, the saying it in this manner. He can't be all letting her know he's worried about her getting napalm'd in the face or something. "I could fly you home, if you want. The subway is probably murder after all of this." It is not a ploy to secretly get invited into Pepper's home. Honest. "I like where his head's at," Spider-Girl says, pointing towards Wolverine. He's speaking sense, she likes that. Reminds her of someone, vaguely, but she can't quite put her finger on it. Whatever. Must not be important! "I will be very disappointed if I don't get to help bludgeon him about the neck and shoulders, just so you know," Spider-Girl tells Coulson, before gesturing between herself, Dazzler, and the others. "And they will too. So, like. Text me. When it's... you know. Go time." She's not very good at this. He's just so unflappable, how do you even interact with that. "Loud and public and hard to miss? I'm SO there," Dazzler quips - though there's this tone that brokers no argument with /that./ "I mean, it seems like every time I've stepped out in public lately there have been loonies or badguys being jerks. Which is... ok, it's not new. Or particularly surprising, at this point." Hands on her hips now, Dazzler sort of frowns thoughtfully - as though only JUST NOW suddenly realizing that her life doesn't resemble anyone's definition of 'normal' AT ALL. "Huh." Pepper Potts is nothing if not stubborn. Even though Tony said they can go, she leans back to snip the correct wire on the IED in this horrid cadaver's chest -- the wire that Tony pointed out. "Just let me finish this one... There. Is that it?" She looks over at her tablet again to verify, then blinks up at Tony. "The subway? Oh, damn. You're right." She dusts off her hands and starts to stand, one hand reaching out unconsciously for balance. There's a slight nod of agreement from Hawkeye as Spider-Girl indicates she wants to be there, and help end this when it's time for that. And yet the female archer doesn't add anything. At least not for the moment, as she shifts her attention away from the stuff Wolverine just 'set down', and back to the SHIELD Agent. Coulson gives them the kind of smile and nods that he has perfected over many years. The kind the acknowledges the request and makes absolutely zero promises without leaving anything but questions as to whether he's actually putting them off or agreeing. Because it's not his call. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't take long to turn up in force, either, with some black SUVs and a larger cargo truck and a whole lot of efficient agents. Coulson adjusts his sling, fishes out his sunglasses, and slips them on. "If you'll all excuse me, I have some supervising and paperwork to get to. Thank you all for your assistance-- containing this sort of damage potential isn't easy and you've all done a commendable job. You can be sure my report will reflect that." And off he goes. G-Man with a job to do. "Great." Wolverine watches Coulson for a moment, then surveys the three young women left behind, offers them all a small, curt nod and a gravel-toned utterance of, "Ladies," then slips by them to retrieve his motorcycle. He'll have to come back for the X-buckle later, lest stumble across it and try to eBay it--or worse, walk around the city wearing it. Tony's right there with his Iron Grip to keep Pepper from falling or anything like that. And then in a swift motion he's aiming to scoop her up and let his faceplate slam back down. "Hang on to something." Somehow, he manages to sound better than Halle Berry cosplaying as Storm with a 20 million dollar budget. And then? It will be time to blast off! "I'm having a kind of good week," Spider-Girl muses, waving after Coulson and Wolverine. "Good press is a new thing for me, I'm kind of diggin' it." With a shrug, she turns and wanders a little closer to Kate and Dazzler, keeping half an eye on the Black Vans with Suits swarming out of them. Sure, good guys, but that is still kind of unnerving. "So. I've had worse days in the city. You?" "Much, but mostly in Hollywood. Worst thing that happened to me /here/ was getting socked in the jaw by the Enchantress over a gig, and /that/ lady's got a mean right hook," Alison admits, eyebrows raised thoughtfully - and rubbing her chin with nostalgic ache. Pepper Potts gasps in surprise as Tony pulls her up by one arm then gets scooped up and can only throw her arms around the gold-titanium suit's neck to keep from feeling like she's going to fall. "Tony!" She sounds more startled than anything, though after a moment she manages to add, "My tablet's back there." Along with whatever sensitive data it contains. Like Pepper's family's email addreses. JARVIS shuts the tablet down. He wish a hacker would. Strangely enough, the black Vans and SHIELD suits apparently don't bother the female Hawkeye. All though as Coulson takes off he gets a smile and a nod. And Logan just gets a nod. "I've survived two different attacks by these zombie robots, and dealt more than I'd like to think about with Shield, but otherwise it's been good." is said as she's asked, before she extends a hand to Spider Girl. "And the name is Hawkeye by the way." Then she tilts her head slightly in Alisons direction. "I'd say 'Hey, at least in Hollywood' but to be honest, I'm not sure how any of this would compare to tinsel town right now." "It's warmer, that's pretty much it," is ALL Dazzler has to offer as far as L.A. is concerned. "People're a little more laid back, but it's mostly just a cover for their crazy. So it's not REALLY that different at all." "Spider-Girl," comes the prompt reply, and the webhead beams as she reaches out to shake Hawkeye's hand. "Nice to meet you. Crappy circumstances, but hey. Could'a been flamier. Go team!" She pumps a fist. Right? "I need to scoot -- you know how it is," Spider-Girl confides in the pair, already firing a webline towards a nearby building. She needs to go retrieve her backpack, but they don't need to know /that/. "But anytime you want some Team-Up Action, tweet me. It'll be fun," she promises, and makes the universal handsign for 'call me' before she goes up, up, and away! ... to retrieve her backpack full of clothes. Shut up, it's more heroic than most exits. Motorcycles. Whatever. And with everyone else more or less gone.... Hawkeye offers Spider-Girl a nod as she takes off, before she smiles at Alison. "I probably should take off too. Sorry. Nice meeting you." And yeah, odds are Kate /really/ should get clear, especially before her sister (who knows she's here, just not at Hawkeye) finds out what happened with the Zombots and starts to worry. Dazzler gives Kate and Spider-Girl a bit of a salute and then they scamper off. How did she end up the last one here? Criminy. Well, when in Rome. She ends up walking about half a block before raising an arm and shouting, "TAXI!" Iron Man's got Pepper in his arms and is flying off to make sure that he gets her back home safely. "It's just a tablet. I grabbed what's most important to me." comes from the Iron Man. It's easier to say this kind of stuff with a metal faceplate blocking all emotion and face-reading. And so, our mighty heroes have put the stomp on the Zombots. What lies ahead?! Tune in next time on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Cameos! Category:Logs Category:Events